Tiffin Equipment: Recreational Vehicle/Trailer

Tiffin is recalling about 528 vehicles over a problem with the equipment. If a leak occurs and the unit is continues to operate, hydrogen gas may be expelled and can be ignited, resulting in a fire, possibly causing serious injury or death.

Campaign
09V443000
Manufacturer
TIFFIN MOTORHOMES, INC.
Reported
17 November 2009
Vehicles
528
Built between
Not published
Models
5
Recall type
Vehicle
Initiated by
NHTSA investigation
Owners notified
7 December 2009
Repaired
Not reported
Unrepaired
Not reported

Does this affect my vehicle?

The manufacturer did not publish a build-date range for this recall, so the model and year list below is the only way to tell whether your vehicle is covered.

  • 2003 Tiffin Allegro
  • 2002-2003 Tiffin Allegro BAY
  • 2001-2002 Tiffin Allegro BUS
  • 2002-2003 Tiffin Phaeton
  • 2002-2003 Tiffin Zephyr

What the defect is

Tiffin is recalling certain recreational vehicle equipped with norcold model 1200LR and 1200LRIM refrigerators, manufactured from december 1, 2001, with serial numbers between 1273701 and 1536607, non-consecutively. A fatigue failure in the section of the cooling unit which contains the refrigerant could allow the liquid solution to slowly leak. If a leak occurs and the refrigerator continues to be operated after solution circulation has ceased the heat source could generate very high temperatures. At such high temperatures, the cooling unit could rupture.

What could happen

If a leak occurs and the unit is continues to operate, hydrogen gas may be expelled and can be ignited, resulting in a fire, possibly causing serious injury or death.

What gets fixed

TIFFIN IS WORKING WITH NORCOLD AND TIFFIN WILL NOTIFY OWNERS AND THE VEHICLE'S REFRIGERATOR WILL BE REPAIRED FREE OF CHARGE BY NORCOLD. PLEASE SEE NORCOLD'S DEFECT REPORT 09E-027.

Timeline

  1. Recall reported to NHTSA17 November 2009
  2. Owners notified7 December 2009

Your rights

A safety recall repair is free. Under US federal law the manufacturer must fix a safety defect at no cost to you — no charge for parts, labor or diagnosis — whether or not you are the original owner. A dealer cannot charge you for recall work, and cannot require you to have bought the vehicle from them.

That entitlement is not unlimited. It applies where the vehicle was first sold less than 15 years before the recall was announced — 5 years for tires. Past that a manufacturer may still do the repair free of charge, and many do, but they are no longer obliged to. This recall was reported on 17 November 2009.

To arrange the repair, contact any franchised dealer for the brand. If a dealer refuses the work or tries to charge for it, you can report that to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/recalls or on 1-888-327-4236.

Manufacturer contact

Owners may contact norcold's recall center at 1-800-767-9101.

Official source

Recalling manufacturer
TIFFIN MOTORHOMES, INC.
Recall initiated by
ODI

Everything on this page — the models listed, the build dates and the repair figures — comes from the manufacturer's filing to NHTSA and describes the vehicle line as a whole, not any individual car. Only the manufacturer can confirm whether a specific vehicle is affected, and whether its recall work has already been carried out. Check yours by VIN and read the official notice at nhtsa.gov/recalls.

Additional notes

Owners may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to <a href=http://www.safercar.gov>http://www.safercar.gov</a> .

Check your own vehicle

This page describes the recall, not any one car. To see which recalls cover a specific vehicle, search by make, model and year.

A VIN lookup here identifies your vehicle and shows recalls issued for that make, model and year. It cannot tell you what is still open on your individual car - only the manufacturer knows that. Search by VIN instead, or check your VIN at nhtsa.gov for whether a recall is still open on your individual car.

Same component

Same brand